Furton said:
My auntie lives and works in Bahrain, been over to visit a few times and it's a nice place. You'll probably end up living on a compound with a load of other Westerners, always nice places as you get your own private pool, restraunt, bar and sometimes, beach!
Not a hugh amount to do there though, it's only small.
Yeh, Bahrain is a nice place. I lived there for about seven years as a kid. From what I remember it was a friendly place with a mostly relaxed atmosphere for westerners etc.
We lived on a 'compound' in the capital, Manama. Don't know if it's still there or not but as part of the expat community, you'd be able to get access or membership to the 'British Club' kind of like a sports club/function hall/bar and resteraunt thingy. There's a few others along similar lines- the Dilman CLub, and various beach yatch clubs. And I remember the 'Sheiks Beach' aparantly owned by the Emir (king) as was (he's dead now and his son is king), which you could go to; meant to be the best and cleanest beach on the island.
Some of the hotels are great and do some amazing food- check out the Sheraton Hotel's 'fish night' (if they still do that..
).
Now of course the Bahrainis have their very own F1 grandprix circuit, gotta be worth a look-in.
You could probably get a pass to the halfway island on the road bridge to Saudi. It has/had a cool tower with a rotating restaraunt at the top, and some good views of the gulf.
If you're into horsracing, some of the arabs are crazy about it! There's even a grass racing track out in the middle of the desert somewhere.
There's also a fair bit of history to see in the museums and other exhibits associated with Bahrain. Chack out the 'Bahrain Fort' on muharaq, I think, and the old portugese fort at the top of tha main island- maybe after almost 20 years they'll have finnished excavating and rebuilding it? Finally if you do go to Bahrain, make sure you climb the 'Jebbel' to the highest point of the island on a clear day, take some binnoculars with you and you'll probably be able to see the entire island.
And if you're new to the desert; take a hat and loads of strong sun-cream and lots of water/mineral salts etc especially if you're going to be with the mad dogs in the mid day sun. The hottest I remember it getting out there was about 45 degrees centigrade during the day and in the evening the humidity skyrockets- remember mosy repellent, or at least a good topical analgeisic to sooth the deadful itch lol.
Go to the 'souq' also, big oldfashioned shopping market type thing with loads of traditional stuff and stalls and shops, most of it is ok, but I seem to remember having to avoid the street corner money lenders and bogus beggers too.
Though it's a good few years since I've been out there so some things have probably changed, on the whole it was a nice plce to live, very different to here though.
Like Dubai, Bahrain is one of the more liberal of the gulf states; all the same it pays to be a little bit careful about what you do and say- when in rome and all that.
Finally a word of caution: don't drink the water that comes out of the tap! it may look like what you get here, but unless things have seriously changed, it isn't. Just don't do it, unless you like being welded to your toilet for several days
Everywhere sells bottled water. You can use the tap water for cooking though, just boil it first.
...in trust.